It may seem it’s outdated but you actually can find numerous sources thru third world PPC users. But due to the monopoly that Intel and Microsoft has on the world of computers these day’s it’s near impossible to very easily get software for the PPC computers. Remember a PPC computer has the original Apple processor, for the past xx number of years it has become necessary to have a computer that has an Intel processor. Most likely you’ve notice for an Apple G5 that is a PPC based ((processor)) you can only go up to Leopard OXS 10.5.8, which means severely limited to the highest OSX of 10.5.8, but most likely you’ve seen problems where certain things makes it necessary to have an Intel processor. You have to research places like Adobe find the latest version of, Example Flash Back. If you check Adobe archive files you’ll find versions OLDER !!! that will work on your PPC computer. Keep in mind that due to the monopoly that Intel and Microsoft has has on world wide computers this makes PPC obsolete. The rainbow or light at the end of the tunnel there are several die hard PPC users who are very good at programing, thru their efforts they have really kept PPC computers out of the per say landfills. But do not give up to me personally my PPC computer I will never give up on. As a software programer with over XX number of years that PPC computer is still way ahead of Intel’s i7 processor, it will out perform any Intel processor. Example my 2.0 dual processor with over 20 Gig of memory is my dream machine. I can go up to 64 Gig memory if I want to, I have linked my JVC 200 CD library to it, have a multi cd/dvd bank of xx number of 1 Tbyte Hard drives, etc., etc.

But I like serious complex things, and I mean serious stuff. The graphics capability basically unlimited, to this day hackers only screw with Intel/ AMD processor machines reason simple Intel processors are sort of very vulnerable to what I call sloppy back doors. Now if you were a hacker you’d know what I mean. As for me I deal with extreme high end security issues. I hate individuals who make people who commonly use their computers for simple stuff, but there are too many childish immature individuals who create bugs, viruses that intentionally do harm on, but there are also certain government agencies who are raising hell on the internet. This is where I come in other wise I’m like a fictional character “Sherlock Holmes”. The fictional character Holmes fought the per say bad guys. I have fun looking for these people sometimes I call it “I’m fishing”. Simple term I’m a hackers worst night mare, that hacker right now is thinking they can really screw up somebody’s life, they get off on it they like screwing with the internet. To bad if only hackers knew that they have the skills to really make some serious money, but instead since they are so warped, or what ever they elect to make life for everyone miserable.

End result in short either upgrade and just become another person stuck in the monopoly and only enjoy using your computer as directed by certain people or continue to use your PPC computer and have to put up with the limitation of not having an Intel processor.

The real issue is that APPLE threw us to the dogs and expected that we would all run out and spend thousands of dollars on their overpriced INTEL based MAC’s. Not me. When my old PPC G5 with 12 gb of RAM and 2 – 2 TB Hard drives will no longer process photos for me then I will vote against MAC and go back to a buggy Windows unit.

Same quad,except apple have a watch that seems too hold the time & date anywhere you wanna be,go,except ,yunno this G5 quad jeeps kicking me out too use the iPad,various unknown reasons,because if I dare too suspect it does exactly that!…oo!

I have 2 of these, one working perfectly, and my cat broke my old iBook, which now lays in pieces. The working one, which I’m using to leave this reply, makes a perfect travel companion and school computer. I also have a ton of games working perfectly on it and a ton more working on System 7 in Mini vMac. I use my Book G4 more than my 2 PCs.

I have a Powermac G3 Blue and White edition running OS X 10.4.11 and it’s starting to struggle, the new hard drive I put initial helps a lot more than the stock 6GB(now it’s a faster 100GB) and a video card is on the way, I might upgrade the processor to a G4 processor eventually

While Microsoft (and even Apple) has everyone thinking that x86, CISC processing is the way to go, the Power architecture and its ARM/RISC brethren are quietly taking over the world (and even Mars). CISC is a great platform for lazy coders, but RISC (and especially vector-processed RISC) processors are the best bang for the buck there is when they coding is done well.

The PowerBook G4 doesn’t feel „old“, the G4 has enough power for what I do (mostly typing and researching), the software is current or semi current (not worse than on a typical Windows machine or even Intel Mac). None of the computers looks old, heck the Pismo is 12 years and going strong and looking better and cooler than most of today’s Windows laptops (and is more expandable than any Intel MacBook). The iBook is really cute and small and lighweight. I don’t have the urge to buy a new computer any time soon.

Hi there, I want to say thank you for your comment and for the donation, but I was checking my paypal account and there is no donation pending, did you complete the transaction? Check your statement to make sure that you were not charged.

I’m running an iBook G4 10.5.8 at 1.33 GHz with 1.5 GB ram 30 gb HD with a pair of 2 terabyte hard drives , mini vga out , with dual display hack , iSub by Harmon Kardon for the boom(required some hack also). I use a VLC remote app on my iPhone , a VNC app and WordPress app powering a LAN site. My only wish list is for an offline Wikipedia reader ! Or way to put it onto media wiki as I also have that running on the server using MAMP pro ( I found it very hard to access MySQL without MAMP). I recently sold a 1ghz G4 iBook and a 500 mhz G4 Powermac.
Love my PPC macs always looking to pick one up out of retirement and recently saw an old tangerine clamshell running OS9 !
Thanks for the great site !

Wow I have a imac g3 450 mhz that still works great. (sage color) also have mac classic 1991 (still working) g4 powerbook 15, and my baby, a g4 mdd dual 1ghz with 2 internal hd and external fw 400/800 portable for all my macs. Great to find this site.

I have a Powermac G4 MD 867 Mhz DP 1,5GB DDR RAM 160GB HD (two partitions) + 75 GB HD. This machine runs on 10.5.8. I also have a Powermac G4 350 MHz SP 1GB 40 GB HD (which I use sometimes to do long-lasting procedures. It runs on 10.4.11, but honestly it is a bit slow compared to my other machines.
I also use an iBook G4 1.33 512MB ram 40GB HD, on 10.5.8.
My G4 867Mhz is faster than my iBook, which proves that dual processors are more important than clock speed.
My wife has an iMac i5 on Lion (2.5Ghz 4GB 500GB). I don’t like this machine and it doesn’t run any faster than my G4 867Mhz. I think this is due to heavy Lion. Anyway, I like Leopard most of all versions of OSX. I hope I can keep on using it for a long time still. I think the design of Jaguar was most beautiful of all, but the system was limited in possibilities (compared to Leopard).
I have got the beautiful install packages of Leopard (5-pack), Tiger, Panther, Jaguar and OS9. I never had the chance to buy the full installation discs of 10.1 en 10.0.
O yeah, my first Mac ever was a ColorClassic 4MB RAM 80MB HD, system 7.5. I sold it for 50 dollars, which was a stupid thing do… 😦 I also had a Performa 630, but honestly, this wasn’t my most beautiful Mac. My iMac 17-inch Core 2 Duo is broken a the moment – the screen has a big flickering looper of about a inch…
You can call me a Macfreak, although I have used with most Windows versions too 😦

By the way, the iMac i5 is running Yosemite now, which makes it much slower than the Powermac G4 MD867… My colleague has a recent Macbook Air, and that one is indeed fast. My favorite is still my iBook G4 1.33 – I gave it a fresh install las tweekend and it is ready for many years to come (I hope).

Quicksilver G4 800 and 933, MDD Dual 867, PowerBook G4/1.33 and my 1st non-PowerPC, iMac 27″ 3.4 i7. My PowerBook has been replaced by the iPad for the most part but it has the Adobe CS4 suite (licensed from work) on it so it’s still quite usable for some pixel work on the road. The 933 and the Dual 867 were freebies from work along with two 23″ ADC monitors.

I use two old iBook G4s, two Macbook Pros and an iMac with PowerPC. For those wanting to upgrade to the new Mountain Lion, be forewarned that you’ll need to upgrade to Snow Leopard before being able to get Mountain Lion (I’m on 10.5.8). And as is typical of Apple, the Snow Leopard upgrade is NO LONGER AVAILABLE in the Apple Store. I guess they’re just trying to phase us out as always. I quickly grabbed a Snow Leopard on Amazon for $50 but they’re going fast.

Wow Peggy did you pay $50 for Snow Leopard on Amazon? They were $29 at apple.com few weeks ago but I checked and they are no longer available anymore. In my opinion Snow Leopard is the best Mac OS X ever, it’s too bad PowerPC can not upgrade because if we could I would be very happy using Snow Leopard.

Well, I guess I’m a sucker too! Bought Snow Leopard, tried to install it and no go! No Way! No Snow Leopard for PowerPC. So I’m returning it. Is there no hope for us? My iMac is perfect, powerful, functional. What now? Is it only a matter of time until we’re obsolete?

Sawtooth G4 dual 450, 256 Mb, 80 Gb + 160 GB raid array. Swapped for a case of beer ‘ cos it had fully optioned FCP on it.
OS 9 and 1.5GB ram on the way plus a USB 2 PCI card so I can install my Yamaha DSP Factory card. Also have a Mercury Xtreme CPU which I’m not sure what to do with atm. Hoping to get it all running Leopard soon.
iBook G4 1.3Gb, 768 Mb, 40 Gb HDD runs Tiger. I have Cubase 4 on this because I couldn’t get a firewire audio interface running on a Windows machine.
I also have a Core 2 Duo Mac Book with Snow Leopard which has has no firewire socket. Grrrr.
Can anyone tell me if cloning my Tiger drive from the iBook will work in the Power PC?

I have Powermac MDD 867 Mhz Dual 1,5 GB and iBook G4 1,33 Ghz 0,5GB. I installed my Family Pack Leopard on both of them. They work nice – I use them every day!
I also have a Powermac 350Mhz 1GB on Tiger but I don’t use very often anymore, mostly just for browsing the internet.

I own and use five PowerPC mac’s. Each one is used at least a few hours every week, but the one I am using most right now is my G5 and powerbook. These very reliable and stable machines all run Mac OS 10.4.11 and have provided me with years of service. I hope to continue using them for years to come. Thanks for creating this website!

A 500Mhz Titanium PowerBook with 512MB and Leopard. Heck, some friends don’t believe it’s 12 years old! It still works great for typing, spreadsheets and some PowerPoint stuff. And watching DVDs on that fantastic widescreen.

Then a 12″ PowerBook G4 for travelling. A little faster, but not as sexier…

Titanium Powerbook is such a nice model , with its’ sharp and thin widescreen, and the black-translucent keyboard…..has some look-alike to the current Macbook Pro style but sleeker….I’m chasing for one unit with the 1ghz G4 processor, hope to find one soon. Congrats for your Powerbook. I have a daily-use iBook G4 1.42 14-inch …nice ‘book also….

Hello folks. I have a powerbook G4, 10.4.11. Any Idea what can I do to play flashvideos on the net ? I put the adobeflashplayer right version that is and it didn’t work, videos jump all the time
Thanks a lot.

What flash videos you’re talking about? *.flv files? Or you are trying to watch youtube? For the flv files, you might download a tool called ‘Perian’, which unfortunately won’t get updated anymore. It works for OSX 10.4.7 and up. It includes a ‘pack of codecs’ for watching several formats of files within Quicktime Player (including the flv videos). Also, you could download Realplayer for Mac and VLC Player for Mac.

For watching Youtube: well, the videos jump all time since the Adobe won’t update Flash player for Macs with PowerPC chips (i.e., powerbook g4, g3, ibook g4, g3, power mac g5, g4, g3 etc)….So, for a fluent watching of this stuff, you might want to go with two software apps : Mactubes, or Youview. Both can play Youtube stuff in a decent way. If you play via Mactubes, there’s a little configuration you need to do, for setting the videos playing via Quicktime player (if you download and doesn’t configure that, videos will also play choppy). So, if you download and launch it, go to the upper menu to : Player -> (and select) Quicktime Player…..and that’s it. Search for the video you want and done. Youview doesn’t need to configure this (but you aren’t able of downloading the videos 😉

@baraka… I think a good alternative is to download mactubes and view youtube clips from that application. Another option is if you are using the TenFourFox browser then there’s a nice extension called “Quicktime Enabler” which will allow you to just right click in a window where flash video (like youtube) is playing and open the video in Quicktime. Will even play H.264. You can read more about it here: http://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/wiki/QuickTimeEnabler

November 3, 2012 @ 12:32 AM
Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5 2.5 GB DDR SDRAM [upgradable to 8GB] HD 149 GB [I believe I have a port for another but never put one in- may have to soon- almost full! Mac OS X 10.5.8. I love my Mac- orphan that it may be!

Found my first Mac on a garage sale for 30€ or 45$. It is a powermac G5 1.6 GHz, 500 GB HDD and 3 GB Ram running with Leopard .(:-)). It only needs a new graphics card. I bought a used ATI 9800 Pro 128 MB and now ….I love my Mac. Fast, great sound and outstanding design.

An update since I posted a year ago. Still using both machines. Camino is no longer being updated as of June 2013, so I now use TenFourFox browser for PowerPC, which is current at version 17.10. It will be updated to version 24 in December 2013. To watch videos, I use MacTubes. When using MacTubes, both the 1.33 Ghz iBook and the 1.5 Ghz Powerbook can play standard definition 360p YouTube videos at full screen and 480p videos in small or medium screen without any lags or glitches; this is not possible in any current browser. LibreOffice is still being updated for PowerPC (now at version 4.0.6), so I use that. For a small fast editor that does some formatting, try Bean – unfortunately no longer being updated. For antivirus I use ClamXAV which is still being updated. Carbon Copy back up is still being updated for PowerPC as well. VLC Media player is also still being updated and works well, but sometimes doesn’t play a URL link when MacTubes will.

17″ G5 iMac (1st gen), 1.8Ghz maxed at 2GB RAM running Leopard 10.5.8
Still love it, great piece of design and practically never fails. Really slow by today’s standards but I love the experience and feel of this machine! Thinking of Swapping the 80GB HDD for a nice large 1TB =)
PPC lives!

Although I have an Intel MacBook and Mac Mini to work on I spend my leisure computing time (web surfing/Facebook/iTunes) on my beautiful G4 Flat Panel iMac. The newer iMacs (in fact all the newer Mac products) have never exceeded the design genius of this era. It has a warmth and personality the newer ones lack. Coupled with an external iSight camera, the great Mac Pro speakers and even the Harmon Kardon clear sub-woofer it is a joy to sit down and use every day. Photoshop CS5 still works fine for my needs and Camino and Bits on Wheels have a place too. I love this goofy little monster and it’s never let me down.

I’m still rocking a 1.33 Ghz PowerBook g4 with 1 bad ram slot. It’s my around the house laptop. Still runs great and plays YouTube videos just fine. I also have a PowerMac G4 533 in my room but that is for light school work, but it soon to be replaced with a G5 which will be used as my main computer.

Though my desktop is an Intel iMac, my 1.5 GHz PPC G4 PowerBook running OS 10.5.8 remains indispensable. I lost at least nine years’ worth of research and writing (contained in CPM-DOS and ProDOS formatted files) when I had to abandon a still-functional Apple IIe I’d lugged up and down the eastern seaboard and coast-to-coast from 1984 to 2011. I’m not going to make that mistake again!

As Amiga-head, I am planning to get Mini G4 or 15″/17″PB G4 to install MorphOS on it. This cute little OS allows G4 users to watch 720p or maybe better videos without choking! There’s also G5 port being prepared.

I have a Dual g5 2 ghz qith 3g ram, running very good!!!!! early 2004, works fine! but at this time, not exist much apps for this machine today…..only for intel mac…..any knows an app to work for music, edit songs etc, thanksss

I own an EMac, 1.42 GHZ, 1 GB Ram, 80 GB Hard drive. Next to it I have a power mac Dual core 867 MHZ, 60 GB HDD (I added a 120 GB HDD which is also a network drive for my emac) and 1.5 GB of Ram.
Runs way faster than my old Windows desktop which i have now sold which had 2.2 GHZ and 1.5 GB Ram. Also, the set up cost me under £100. With the Emac off eBay for £1.04. And it’s a perfectly good set up for writing letters, photo editing and storage (its main use) watching films and web browsing. Also, I edit my blog for budget smartphones on there.
With the money left over from buying Secondhand PPC equipment rather than Windows or intel macs that would meet my requirement, I was able to put a lot of money into a digital SLR, and still have a perfectly good setup.

Dual G4 867MHZ; 2GB RAM; 280GB HAD; 10.4.11 to run iMovie, edit pictures, sounds, layouts and all the usual stuff.
G4 twelve-inch iBook 1.25GHZ; 1.5GB RAM; 120GB HD; 10.4.11 to run all the above when I’m travelling.
Generally keep a spare G4 workstation in the background to run a MAMP environment for web development: from memory the current spare is a deadhead single processor MDD with 2GB RAM and an airport card.

I’m not sure exactly what I have, I need some help figuring it out, i think it’s a G4 PowerPC, can’t figure out the processor speed :(, has 2 fire-wire ports, an Ethernet port, 2 usb ports, 2 additional memory bays [which i filled :)], a CD-RW drive, and 3 1/2 Floppy disk..
I have ADDED: 2 additional Ethernet cards installed, a fax modem, Wi-Fi networking card, and a extra 124 MB of ram for a modest total of around 636 MB.
If you know what type of mac i have please tell me… i cant figure it out because it came with Ubuntu 11.04 when i got it. I am going to update it to 12.4.02 LTS today….

Hi, first thanks for this useful blog.
I have a PowerBook G4 17″ 1Ghz 1,5GB Ram, WD 250GB HDD with 10.5.8 Leopard and it’s so beautiful with this screen ! I can run a lot of apps like iLife and iWork ’09, C4D r11, Adobe CS2, SimCity 4, Myst IV…
It’s a little slow but it’s not a problem !
And if you need of a old app (like the last Spotify PPC app) contact me !

I have a power Mac G5 Quad baby. I love this machine, the only downside is that apple doesnt support it anymore. I feel like I have to hack everything or do soem sort of work around for anythign to work right.

I bought an old Powerbook G4 (third hand) from a friend. It was just collecting dust in his closet. He wasn’t technical at all which is why it was just sitting there with a corrupt OSX installation. I installed Ubuntu on it for a while but the wireless drivers didn’t want to work properly so loading pages happened at a snail’s space. I left it that way for a while then reverted to a custom version OSX v10.6.7. Now the internet works perfectly. There is still plenty of life left in this system thanks to dedicated developers.

The most important software I have on here is the Camino browser, LIbreOffice, and VLC. I greatly appreciate these developers for continuing to update their software on PPC computers.

iMac G3, iMac G4 and PowerMac G5, those were, are and will allways be great machines. The iMacs have allready passed ten years and i am sure they will pass another ten.
I think, everything that makes a Mac more like a PC is a mistake, so Intel processors are a huge mistake.

i just got back to PPC with a cherry 14in ibook G4 1.42ghz 1.5gb ram 60gb drive and ati 9550 32mb card running 10.5.8….. is way more fun to use than my intel 13in mbp and gets far better battery life than the mbp. i love PPC because it works great thank you for the website

First mac was an original SE, with a whopping 20 megabyte hard drive, and I tricked it right up with 4 meg of RAM… it smoked!!! Still fires up to this day (albeit with a faint ringing sound while it’s on)! The kids love to play Battle Chess, and there’s nothing like a 9 inch screen to make your 20″ flat panel iMac seem shiny and new!!

Just lately, I have run into a few issues, though, and wondering if it isn’t time to upgrade the flat panel with 10.4.11 (2004 model – so not bad life really). Unless of course someone has a workaround for these issues:
– Can’t update my iPhone 3GS cos it needs later iTunes, which won’t install onto 10.4.11, hence can’t update many iPhone apps
– Broke my flashplayer set-up, and Adobe don’t support 10.4.11 – I have an old binary, but no idea how to get it installed… have seen a link above pointing to a safari extension, but not sure how to install/use?

Well I’ll be buggered! Just re-checked the Adobe website, and they’ve added some help resources for old PPC installs that go wrong… Flash set-up is now working again… Pretty happy iMac set-up now… if I can just work out how to get around the iPhone issues… seriously, planning to upgrade my phone in a couple of months, but won’t be able to keep the software up to date…

I agree, if apple still made PPC chips they would have the superior processors- look at the intel equivalent at the time of the PPC G4- the pentium 4. My dual 1GHz PPC G4 would thrash any P4 based computer by miles!

iBook G4 1.33 Ghz 10.4.11
I am a jewelry artist specializing in animal themed jewelry. I use Mac exclusively, have for years. Design using CS2. I have 2 more in storage loaded with same software for backup. These little machines still look awesome and manages to impress most. Never in my life have I owned a windows machine. These older handsome iBooks are all I need to keep my business functioning and moving forward.

Hello Everyone,
I just bought an Imac 5g (pre intell) and would like to know where can I buy programs for it? I’ve been looking for a green screen program for stills. This is my first mac and I know its an older model but I LOVE IT! Runs great, upgraded the memory to 2gb. Some things Id love to upgrade but not sure they can be. if anyone has the manual for this machine in a pdf file please send to me. I get lost when looking for t on the apple website.

FirstGen Intel iMac Can’t remember specs havn’t looked these over yet (X2) (one for sale one for me, after HDD and fresh Leopard install of course)

I’d say my collection of semi-vintage macs is off to a good start, after my spare G5’s and intel gen1 are restored, and up and running they will be for sale in order for me to aquire my next vintage, looking for a G4 CUBE, or PowerMac G4 as highly spec’d as possible. Also own several newer systems (all personal never for sale) a 2.4core2 20″ w/4gb iMac (first gen aluminium) 3.06GHzcore2 iMac w/4gb (second gen aluminium) 2.53core2 MBP w/8gb Late 2009. Daily driver, portable monster.

Interested in one I’m working on? Email me mkuhlberg@gmail.com only those specified are for sale the others are my pride and joy.

Have two e-macs and two powermacs G5 DP 2.0.Love the powermac it’s still very useable.And a selfmade intel Lion HackinTosh quad core. HackinTosh is the way to go if you want an supported Apple Computer.

I’m the owner of a last gen Imac G4 with 20 inch TFT – 250 GB hard disk and 2 GB of RAM. I still run OSX Tiger and Leopard. When I have free time – I’ll still like to fix and sell all kind of iBooks and PowerBooks.

Even in 2013 – PowerPC rocks…. (and it keeps on rocking in a free world).

Hey! I’m running a great PowerPC G5 2 x 2.3 GHz with 6.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM under 10.5.8. Just a cool machine to work with loads of software for video editing, photo retouch and music production.
Also covered with MacBook Pro 13″ 2.9 GHz Intel i7 with 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 under last 10.9 OS X Mavericks. This is my lovely travel and live super-tool.
Greetings from Spain!

I’m posting this from a 20″ iMac isight G5 2.1ghz, with 2.5gb of ram and a 320gb HDD. It was a machine donated to me, and wasn’t in working condition due to the dreaded bad capacitor issue. After replacing the cabs on the logic board, as well as 2 on the PSU, it’s up and running! My previous PPC machine was a G4 MDD power mac, and years ago I had the first release bondi blue iMac.

Congrats for your good work Daniel. iMacs G5 they are good machines, but I heard that they are not very reliable so just in case make sure you always have a back up of everything in hand. 😀 Thumbs up for recycling!

Just completed a new Internet Video App for Tiger/PPC Macs!!! Compatible with over 100 internet video sites and should be supported for at least another 4 years! A G.U.I. for the popular Python app youtube-dl, it allows web videos to both be downloaded and also streamed to QuickTime! Works well on most G4s and all G5s. Best of all, it allows the viewing/downloading from a number of sites like Vevo and DailyMotion that have been out of PPC reach for some time.

I have a Power Mac G5, 2.0 dual processor. Problem in my unit a Nvida GeForce 6800 ultra can’t any drivers or anything for it. Any suggestions. I spoke to Nvida they seem to think only PC’s exist out there. This video card wasn’t cheap when I bought it back a about a century ago. These day’s video cards don’t come close to what this card is capable of. Presently it’s operational but I can’t find my drivers master disk. Any suggestions as to where I can get the drivers and such ?

Drivers? OS X has built in drivers for the 6800 Ultra card. There is no driver to add in. If your running some type of Linux, then a driver could be a problem, not sure on the 6800. If your running morphos, it doesn’t support geforce cards at all.

Scored a PowerBook G4 12″ 1ghz with 512mb ram recently to add to my collection. It was working, had tiger installed, with messy file system, lots of junk. Outside was filthy too. I upgraded the ram to 768mb, and zero’d the hard disk. Some elbow grease was needed, but the case cleaned up really well, and it almost looks new. I installed Leopard with iLife 09 and iWork 09. Also my standard collection of favorite apps. Afterwards, ran monolingual and xslimmer to remove all invalid languages, keyboard layouts, and unused cpu architectures. Optimized with Maintenance, Deeper, and Onyx. Its running fantastic now, not slow at all, and boots very fast.

Way to Go! You did an amazing job saving this guy. PowerBooks are awesome machines… I’m looking to get one for myself… I do have an iBook G4 to do all the installations and a Pismo to do all texting. 😀

Revived a UMAX S900, upped it to G4 CPU at 495MHz with 824MB RAM, ATI Radeon 7000 graphics, USB/Firewire and -tadah- OSX 10.4.11 running on it. Monolingual ran over it and slimmed the system, now doing its job as my webserver and SetiAtHome cruncher 😉

10.5.8 is the last version for PPC. Buddy3000games, check the About This Mac window, it should say 10.5.8 if you’re running Leopard with all the updates installed, or are you running 10.9.2 on an Intel-based Mac?

I own at least 7 PPC Macs that I saved from being thrown out. 2. Beige G3”s that I bumped up from 266mhz to 400 ghz, 1. PowerMac 6500/300 that I just got running, 1. PowerMac 6200/cd, 1. 7200/120 1. 20″ G5 iMac ALS 1. Dual Processor 2,5 G5 Tower. I am currently using the G5 Tower as my Mac Server and I am currently working on a Beige G3 266mhz mini tower, trying to get it running. Thanks for keeping the Oldies but Goodies running longer.

14″ Apple iBook G4 1.42 GHz/768 MB RAM/80 GB HDD/Combo / Leopard Laptop can I use this to
Stream you tube hd movies or you tube for that matter ? Think you. I wus thinking of buying one any help wood b grate :). I wanna hook it to the

I have a lot:) , but today , yes!! today I buy a G3 Blue & white power pc 750 400 mhz , HD 12 gb, 512 ram, Ati Rage 128, dvd rom and cdrom and ZIP , it running OSX Tiger 10.4.11…,good… in a few days I will upgrade in hd capacity and memory to 1 gb, the case is like new!! 😉

I`m a Microsoft fixed guy, cause I hate Apple!
Not the great machines or the lovely gadgets but THE FU…ING CONCERN at all & specialy the MAC OS section! GREAT OS (theoretical) of course couse it`s UNIX so many possibilitys and things you could do (THEORETICAL!) but u could`nt & u have no chance to do or even to try it…
CAUSE IT`S A MACINTOSH!
but I love the machines & I grow up with MOTOROLA CPU´S from the beginning (r.i.p.) and so I`m buying 2 ppc machines on e-bay & running them:

use it only for internet, e-mails, calender & contacts… SHAME ON ME but what else could i do with this great looking hardware with this really GREAT DISPLAY on these POOR VGA & these laughy 2GB not able to play even 720p video s…

and i`ve a lot of AIRPORT / AIRBASE STUFF! (2 airbase extreme, 3 airports…)
Can somone give a windows child & mac os newbie give advice & tips to use the machines wisely?
My dream is to build a small home network! I
The G4 as a small homeserver & the G5 as a “Multi” Media machine in the living room?

iBook G3 – 10.3.8 (Panther, about to update to Tiger)
iBook G4 – 10.5.8 (Leopard)
Macbook 6,1 – 10.9.2 (Mavericks)
I know my Macbook has an Intel processor, but it didn’t feel right to not mention my baby. I also am saving up to buy myself an iMac G5, because it’s such a beautiful machine.

Too many to list but my favorites are my Pismo G3, 500 MHz, 512 RAM and my Macbook Pro i7, 2.8 GHz, 16 GB RAM (Mavericks). In between I own 2x PowerMac G5’s, 9x G3-G4 iBook laptops and couple of iMacs. I also have our families very first Apple IIe. I’d love to get a Clam shell and have a number of donor G3 Lombard’s and Pismo’s.

I love the retro look and feel of early mac’s and do what I can to keep them functioning. Thanks to TenFourFox they can all be used on the internet and I use LibreOffice 4.0 on my Pismo which has OSX 10.4.11. iTunes works great for background music while I work, which I plug a TDK sound system into.

The G5’s both have Cinema Screens running OSX 10.5(?) that I use VLC for watching movies on + the TDK which just plugs into the earphone jack. While I have an Apple TV 2nd Gen it seldom gets used.

This is typed on my Pismo PowerBook 3,1 that came out circa 2000. That’s 14 years old.

Got a dp 450MHz PowerMac G4 from a pawn shop, just need heatsinks
Just picked up a 12″ PowerBook G4, I’m upgrading the screen to 1400×1050 as soon as the piece comes in, and while I’ve got it open I’m going to add two 120GB SSDs in RAID0

Hello. I just got a PowerMac G5 tower. duo core 2.0 ghz with 8 gb ram…i could use some help finding software…i have a clean install on of lepoaord. i want to set up cubase le4 or le5 but internet wont let me activate my steinberg eliscense page….page doesn’t load right to view correctly…any help would be great.

MS Office 2008 is a universal app, there is a g5 version of TenFourFox, while it is a bit outdated. MS Office 2004 is for ppc only. While it is faster and requires less hard disk space, it is significantly outdated. There is Open XML Converter, which allows you to convert and read files from newer versions of office. There are quite a bit of games that run on ppc.

got this from someone that was throwing it away, glad to keep it out of a land fill. i have 2x1tb hdds i plan to install and upgrade the ram. was also thinking about getting a ssd as the boot drive and upgrading graphics card to a 1gb card.

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There still is a way to use a patched skype on 10.5.8 PowerPCs.
At least login, chat and audio calls work fine, video only with partners running another old skype client.
Hints are all over the web, search for altering skype version number(s) in the corresponding info.plist file!

Powermac g4 Quicksilver Server dual 1.0Ghz 1.5GB ram, using as a file server for a music studio. Striped RAID array makes it zip along. I also have a linux box for it, but honestly I love the aesthetics of the G4 cases. Just cool 🙂

Running a well used power mac G5 with dual 2.0 ghz processors.
Bought this used from a guy on craigslist a few years ago because I’ve always wanted one. It is beautiful and I use it from time to time to do imovieHD editing. It runs well. Nthing fancy, but it works well. Will likely keep it just because its so pretty to look at!

I am sorry to say that I have given up. I have a dual G5 [2003] with 8 gigs of memory NS apple 23″ Cinema Display. One day it sopped running the display. Tried another monitor and that did not work either. Got a new iMac and the migration assistant worked fine [so I think it works to some degree]. Any suggestions as to how to resurrect?

it’s been a while since I’ve commented, and I have recently recieved some old stuff for free. I have an iMac G4 1GHz 17″, a “Sawtooth” PowerMac G4, a late 2005 PowerMac G5 (dual CPU, I forget the speed), and install disks from OS X Public Beta to OS X 10.11. I still need a 10.5 disk for my G5, though. Anyone know where I could get a cheap one/create a USB one?

well there is a trick i used on my Quicksilver… i did not succed to create a usb installation, but i had to burn the image on another hard drive… so the trick is to use two hard drives, or to make a partition on a one hard drive, then burn the leopard dmg on it and run the installation as soon as you restart your mac.

Powermac QuickSilver G4 1.25 ghz made in Ireland in 2002. Still working good. I use it as my main computer. I do not agree with people that say powerpcs are good as first computers or for kids. They can be exploited only if you know how to use them and where to find still working software.

Same for me. I’m actually writing from my “baby”.
Still working, to be honest some problems with websites requiring newer Java&flash versions, but who really cares? I can still edit my photographs etc etc..
The only device not working with my PB G4 is my iPhone (that requires the latest iTunes to syncronize), and that’s why nowadays I also own a PC.
Funny, isn’t it? Apple forced me to use Windows… the world is going uspide down!

Getting an SSD for your PPC?? Here is some important info I found out that might help.

As stated above, I just got an OWC ‘TRIM-Free’ ssd for my MDD DP 1.42. At first, this was easily the best performance I’ve EVER had on this machine – OS9 level peppiness even running Tiger with heavy apps like TenFourFox. Opened 2 9000×6000 pixel images in Photoshop and doubled them by 10% increments, then opened TenFourFox with 50+ tabs – could move between PS History-states and then back over to TenFourFox and cycle tabs with no-more than 1/10th second delay!!!! Was ROCKIN’ 11GB of Virtual Memory!

BUT it all came crashing down in less than a day.

The drive became completely unresponsive and I could not get any further than boot. Thought: “Knew this was too-good to be true!” Well OWC tested the drive and reported back it was fine!?!?!? To be on safe-side they sent another knew one and adviced me to attach to newer machine (Linux in my case) and verify it had newest firmware before using. Well this meant having to partition to MBR so Linux could see it. Well, once it was verified, I repartitioned back to APT to put in the Mac, but suddenly it was unresponsive again like the 1st one! Well to use the parlance of our time – WTF?

So it was time to get me some edumacation into this stuff. The reason Sandforce controllers don’t need TRIM is that they do it themselves when the drive is idle. On a modern system, with copious amounts of RAM, the only time the ‘Garbage Collection’ function is noticeable, is when large numbers of blocks are being reclaimed. In older OSX systems with 2GB RAM limits, this becomes much more likely than in newer systems.

So what to do? In this case, the drive was 120GB (for $64 = Good Deal), I had initially partitioned it into 2 sections (80GB for OSX and 40GB for OS9). On a light day, maybe this would be fine, but on those ‘Heavy-Flow Days’, I can easily push 20GB or so onto VM, so I either plan on allowing for periodic down-time or give the drive all the room it can support to enable maximum paging flexibility. The second idea has been great and no more problems. Also, some have said that with Sandforce’s drives this also makes sense in wear-leveling, because the more of the drive is available, the more it can spread the data around, and the drives also auto-recopy data periodically to make sure it stays fresh.

Boot-times/program load times aside, one of these SSDs are the best investment you can put into your classic PowerMac. Like having virtually limitless RAM. But you need to allow it more openspace to auto-maintain (for G4/32-bit systems at least 40GB).

•• Note on IDE/SATA adaptors: The smaller inline ones like mentioned above, generally have a 2TB limit. Larger drives often require a PCI card. Also, they sometimes add an additional 1-second delay to Access/Spin-Up times. Once data starts moving, there is no delay, but if your only drive is an SSD, it might make sense to experiment disabling ‘disksleep’ on pmset in Terminal. Even in this case, however, they were occasionally be a momentary searching during bootup for the system folder as the card comes to life. This is normal.

In case you´re interested in even more SSD options for your PowerBooks:
I found a good solution that works for me in a couple of 15″ and 12″ PowerBook G4 and even one 3400c (!). Best thing is that the parts needed are not outdated nor special to Mac nor costly – and top of all, the form factor of an internal 2.5″ drive is matched:

The way to go is:
1) get a mSATA SSD (mini form factor, sometimes called 1.8″ SATA)
These drives range from crap (Transcend 8GB) through moderate size (32GB Toshiba, AData, Samsung etc.) to nowadays 512GB (i.e. Crucial). You might be looking for a TRIM free / self trimming version. I´ve never focused on this, used what I could get and did not yet notice any slowdowns, even after months of usage under OS X 10.5.8 and 10.4.11
Price indication: eBay has 32GB drives for around €20,- and sometimes less!

2) get a mSATA to IDE/PATA 2.5″ adapter board with 2.5″ enclosure. Assemble with mSATA SSD and have a direct replacement of the old spinning lagging mechanical drive in your beloved PowerBook.
Price indication: eBay has some offers starting at mere US$12,- from chinese vendors.
(Bought a couple from different sources, the PCB and chipset seem to always be the same)

Great, finally!! I´ve been looking for such a “solution” for a long time.
Only drawback is that some videos that play slow but correctly on other players do it fast but with artifacts on CorePlayer. Perhaps it can be configured to drop frames instead but play nicely?

Hi everyone. I just bought a PowerBook G4 1.67 15″ DLSD/HR for $50.00. That’s the Hi-Res model that was on the market for 3 months before they pulled it for the intel models. It’s rare. it was a gamble, I bought it sight unseen so I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Here’s the breakdown. Machine is running, the new battery is detected but not charging. One ram slot is dead and the screen goes black while still running. I reset the PRAM and SMC, that did nothing. There’s a Hi-Res logic board on ebay, should I try to save this machine?

Update: Battery is now charged. I haven’t looked at the machine for over a month and the battery is now magically charged BUT If I pull the power cable out the machine dies. So the charged battery doesn’t operate the machine. Weird.

Gets around the WebM hassles that PPC users have been facing with direct playback in previous versions, adds a Batch-Download Function, Vimeo Album/Youtube List play/DL and much more.

This will be the last release and is being setup to last for a while. Will be able to download at http://ppcluddite.blogspot.com/ in a few days (will let you all know).

QUESTION – Have not Offered Localization Before Know, but am thinking I might this time. Are there any people who can do good translations to any major languages that might want to chip in a little time? Probably a page and 1/2 of small text blocks.

Still rocking my PowerBook G4 1,67Ghz DL-SD, with 2gieg of ram and a 100gb seagate momentus drive, leopard runs like a champ in my oldie! Had a MacBook Pro 17″ intel based crap, sold it and when out to get myself my lovely PowerBook!! Damn this Intel crap machines! They are SO crappy, and if you think that you’re powerbook gets hot, use a intel machine for 1 hour and you can cook a meal on it! At least my fans of my powerbook g4 are a lot more silent then this intel coockbooks!!

i’m running right now a Graphite Ibook G3 ( Clamshell ) 466MHZ with 570mo of ram . i run 10.3 on it . trying to find a good browser to do some light web browing .
i do not find anylink for a version of sea monkey for G3 on 10.3 or i can’t find opera 10.10 for ppc either …

Using two PB G4 A1106@1,67Ghz with 10.5.8, both r running fine, one is used for Media only using iTheatre and Cog/Vox, the other one is used for Web and Photoshop. And i’m pretty interested in this Project: http://www.powerpc-notebook.org

In March I at last resurrected a PowerMac G5 (June 2004) DP 2.5 GHz, 5 Gb RAM (for start) and mirrored 1Tb HDD. It was a liquid cooling system leak and the power Supply was killed by it. Also there was lot of metal corrosion. I bought it cheap. I already have G5 2.0 Ghz, where 1 or 2 CPU boards were dead, so I took all parts from it to new 2.5. The DVD was blind, so I took a good one from my G4 Mirror Drive Door. Now it has a passive colling system and a new name Frankenstein %) Today it runs 10.5.8 Leopard Server with NetBoot+NetInstall services, Apple Diagnostics and later I plan to move there my Photo medialibrary from Mac mini 2014 with Sierra 12.4.

PowerMac G5 2,0 Ghz PowerPC 3,5 Go Ram with a Velociraptor150 160 Go
It a cheap machine that I bought for nothing on the famous french site “leboncoin.fr” …
Fantastic machine with full of useful softwares …
Regards
Phil from France

I have an eMac G4 at 1GHz and 768MB of RAM. I upgraded it with an AirPort Extreme wireless card, so I can use it in my room for listening to music on an old version of Spotify. It runs 10.5 Leopard.

I also have an iBook G4 14″ at 1.25GHz and 1GB of RAM, but it does not work properly. The battery is dead and the power jack is non-functional. When I plug in the charging cord, nothing happens. It’s a shame, because it’s a great notebook otherwise. It is running 10.4 Tiger.

PowerBook G4 Titanium (15 inch), 667Mhz, 1Gb RAM. I write on it documents (MS-Office 2004 with docx.), listen to the music, video and music making using iLife ’08 software bundle. It is running 10.4.11 Tiger with fresh updates.

Looking for info I came across this website, thought leave a comment too…….
I have an iMac G5 at 1,8 GHz with 2Gb RAM (from my old AMD64 PC) and 320 GB 2,5″ HDD (From an old Motorola VIP1963 Cable tuner) and was running OSX 10.5.8 Leopard.
That was not running very well, with the “old” browsers and hard to find software, so I made the switch to Lubuntu 14.04.5 (Installed with boot DVD) Now my iMac is reborn and can be used again with almost all the new free open source software available on this platform.
At the moment I am trying to upgrade to Ubuntu version 16.04… cross my fingers……

Apple systems are like a fine wine when you find a good OS for it the results can be pretty impressive. I’ve dealt with apple computers since the 70’s, I do not like the new Apple pro. Sure it has more memory but I found it to be extremely clumsy when it comes to allotting memory. But the older pro series G5 with a dual processor to me does circles around the new Apple Pro. IMac’s are too limited made for a person who really doesn’t d much computer wise. I call the iMac as a game player want to be.
But keep in mind I build PC’s and Apple systems, Apple screwed up when they adopted crummy windows, the new windows uses Edge, which to me was programed for one purpose to eliminate Google and other sites. I’ve spoken to Microsoft Technical Department and asked some very serious questions. (1) Why is Microsoft stop supporting Internet Explorer. (2) Why is Microsoft trying to eliminate their competition.
(3) Why is Edge based on sales, Microsoft products, etc.
The answer they gave me is all based on the dollar, Microsoft doesn’t make money with Internet Explorer, but third parties are making a killing. I have one system, PC Based, that is stuck using Edge 42. Now Edge 42 is supposedly based on corporate and IT use, but it depends upon cloud. Cloud is very vulnerable to attacks, information you put on cloud consider it on the billboard it’s not really secured.

OK!! Back to the Apple G5, with the right software it kicks butt. I found that Leopard makes a G5 hum with delight. Reason Leopard has a very good memory watcher. Now if you don’t know what a memory watcher is then do some very intense research I don’t have time for idiots who don’t know programing.
An Apple G5 dual processor is a very sweet rig, but if you only play the stupid games then you are nothing more than a looser to me. Personally I’m into advanced graphics and real time progressive reality. So if you only play games then you are only paying what some idiot wants you to play. The real fun is get into the cheap lazy programing and change the parameter’s now this is really where the fun comes in. If you play games with other users then the only thing your doing is wasting your time. The true game player sure plays with per say a group of people but when the group clicks then the real playing begins. Getting into the program and really have fun, but be careful you will never play some damn game that someone thought up leaving you only x number of paths or actions. There are two distinct PC or Apple users those who waste their time with crumby, sloppy programing, sure spend days months or what ever in the end you just wasted your time. The other is those who get into the games and change parameters. Example: that rifle your shooting with has so many bullets, but change the parameter and now it becomes a portable high intense laser. Or that sword you have in your hand is not just a sword but it’s also diamond sharp, it fits your hand because the sword becomes one with your hand, ok take it to more an extreme that sword will only accept your hand. Anybody else picks it up and their hand burns.

Again an Apple G5 can be limitless. An Intel I9, gee you’ll never know it’s full potential unless you are running at least 64 gig’s of memory. I good intel i5 will suite any looser who just plays games written by three headed monkeys. But if that PC or Apple doesn’t have a good memory manager than all you have is a clumsy piece of worthless junk.

I have just built a PC that has a common processor but it has 128 gig’s of memory, five sd drives, 2 blue ray cd/dvd units.and a few adjusted tweaks to two upper video cards. When I turn the system on it takes the first screen five seconds to appear, if I have the system play 3 dimensional chess with another computer it normally wins within x number of moves, each game is played differently.